[Dave A]

Jean-P,

I am fascinated by others outside the states being interested in cameras. Collectors in Europe and Aus are at the front. In the states, we are all looking at sets but I think that is because we have so many to choose from. Cameras are a minority in the field of collecting here. Good for all of you to keep us interested in the other end of the CRT.

I was lucky enough to come along in broadcasting when the RCA TK-60 was still around and it is my choice as I got to run one when I started. The idea that this design was still around in the late 60's after thirty years of broadcasting is a monument to the lack of anything beyond tubes at the time (save for a few transistors) or any thought as to how to build a better camera. They just gave the pig a new dress. And a bad blue paint job.

Conceptually, nothing changed in 30 years. You moved the tube on a sled to focus. It shared a HV supply with the orthicon so if you adjusted the viewfinder brightness, you would change the tube HV. You threw not quite as much light at the scene since the 50's and the orthicon introduction. It was the super-hetrodyne version of a camera. That was good for 40 years or so in radio. It ran and color was expensive for stations.

I wish I could have run a TK-40. What a monster that was but seeing one at the ETF and playing with it...and not running...but not in a real studio was fun. It is a special beast that needed careful balancing on it's head to be smooth. And it can be if you took the time like all cameras.

I had a TK-42 to run but the picture was awful and so was the camera for an operator so I do not vote for it. My color camera vote will have to wait.

I remember seeing the first Plumbicon Thomson's on CBS here in the states on their football broadcasts in the mid-70's and seeing the true colors of uniforms. Night and day away from what we had. Philips and RCA caught up quickly.

Let's hear from the other pioneers of bad television.